Rants and raves about the mess of higher education in the United States.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Sexual Abuse on Campus Ignored Again

By Professor Doom

The Sandusky Affair, as it is called nowadays, is,
I hope, as sordid as it gets in our hallowed halls of higher education.
Regrettably, it’s not the only serious sexual misbehavior on campus. It’s just
so bad that others are overlooked. I want to highlight another “affair”, to
reinforce, yet again, how corrupted higher education has become today,
primarily due to the new caste of administrative titans controlling the system.
Consider a story from February of this year:

So, the story starts out as “just another
pedophile sex scandal,” one that might have happened anywhere else. The next
line in the article clarifies that higher education’s current status has much
to do with the horrors here, since outside of academia (and, I concede,
churches), public accusations of horrible crimes get investigated in a timely manner:

“The allegations
concerned conduct that had apparently gone on for years, …”

Sigh. It had gone on for years.

Further in, the article states the rumors and
allegations started “by 2003.” Over a
decade of this sort of activity, and only now, in 2014, does admin think maybe
something should be done about a predator on campus (keep in mind, most
campuses have high school students on them, so this sort of allegation requires
a response, at least by people that don’t advocate taking advantage of the young).
Recall in my
essays on administrative corruption that only the most egregious acts are
ever revealed, and then only after many years. The article from Insider Higher
Ed continues:

“…prompting
the university to commission an outside law firm to determine whether the
university had failed in its responsibilities.”

What does administration do first when there’s a
predator on campus? Well, hire an outside law firm to make sure “the university”
wouldn’t be in any legal trouble.

It’s not the university that’s being protected
here, it’s the administrators, since “the university” has no chance of going to
jail over this. It’s so funny be told, year after year, that’s there’s no money
for faculty pay raises, no money for lightbulbs for the projectors, even, but
if an administrator’s neck is on the block, then millions of dollars suddenly
become available to hire an extra law firm (reading between the lines here: the
university’s on-retainer legal counsel, probably the cheapest they could get,
was good enough to protect the university, just not good enough to protect
administrators).

Hmmm.

But enough about the administration’s sudden
ability to find money when they need to protect themselves, let’s get back to
how much of a threat this predator was:

“Miller's
reputation was such that upperclassmen took to warning freshmen and sophomores
about his "creepy" behavior.”

--everyone
on campus knew about this alleged human being. Understandable, after a decade
of complaints in various forms (including formal). This is important to
understand: administration cares nothing for the students on campus, so
warnings about a dangerous predator must come from the students, not from the
insanely overpaid administration.

In this blog I often give, or pass on, eyewitness testimony from
myself or colleagues, so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my only direct
observation of something similar. On one campus, there was one teacher
notorious for hitting on basically every female student there. At the risk of
dating when this was, the lecherous faculty’s MySpace page was the internet
equivalent of a cringe-worthy “love trap,” and students regularly complained
about him. My advice on the matter was asked, and actually heeded (this was
before the school became accredited, after which faculty were considered no more
than wastes of institutional resources).

I said we really shouldn’t keep the guy, but I didn’t see any
other cause for action. Yes, he called students and said “I love you” to them
(a student played such a message for me)…but the legally adult students kept giving him their phone numbers, and
there was never even an accusation of anything illegal. His targets were all of
legal age, and while he propositioned many, there was never any claim of follow
through. At the time, we didn’t have any underage people on campus, but there
was no evidence or indication that he didn’t have that modicum of discretion.

He was just creepy.

We used him as an adjunct until we could finally fill the
permanent position (but by that time faculty no longer had influence, and it was
filled by an educationist instead of someone knowledgeable in the field).

Much like with Miller, the whole campus knew about this guy, and
students with sense avoided him. I guess a case could be made the students that
DID associate with the campus creep had it coming, but shouldn’t admin do what
they can to protect minors, and even barely high school graduates, from this
sort of thing?

Back to the story:

“The
report found "numerous instances" of violations of university rules
and policies…in which Miller provided alcohol to underage students, took
students to his vacation home after being warned by his dean not to do so,
showered with students at his health club, and went into a hot tub naked
with students.”

Yikes.

Now, I grant that students might get together and complain about a
faculty member (especially one boneheaded enough to actually check for
cheating, since
that can easily catch half a class), so it’s possible admin investigated
(stop laughing!) and just never found any real evidence. I’d totally respect
that. Alas, it wasn’t just students reporting this guy, and administrators
received official documentation:

“Robert
F. Miller is the same one who taught at Whittier Junior High in the late 60’s
in Fairfax county, he is a pedophile. He is responsible for molesting several
7th and 8th grade students…”

Admin allegedly investigated this, and still found nothing;
another e-mail detailing what Miller was (allegedly) doing was also
insufficient to set off any alarms by (effin’ clueless) administrators. If it
flirts like a pedophile, acts like a pedophile, and copulates with children
like a pedophile…only an administrator could not finish that thought.

Still, with so many accusations and documentations, it was clear
to admin that they had a predator willing to prey on and exploit the underage
for personal benefit. Since administration was satisfied that Miller fit this
description, they had only one proper way to treat someone who would ruthlessly
exploit the innocent:

They promoted him to administration.

I can’t make this stuff up, so I encourage the reader to consider
this from the article:

“…appointed
Professor Miller special associate to the dean for the 2011-12 academic year…The
university confirmed, however, that Professor Miller’s salary for this period
did, in fact, reflect that he received the full salary, including the
supplement, associated with this position."

I’d like a pay raise, too (in this case, a supplement of $10,000 a
year), but I’m unwilling to engage in the run-of-the mill exploiting of
children that is basic administration activity, much less the things Miller was
(allegedly) engaged in.

Many of my colleagues have lost their positions for having
standards and integrity, because administration doesn’t want that. I presume
administration doesn’t want pedophiles on campus (hey, it’s possible), but it’s
clear that given a faculty member devoted to education, or a faculty member
devoted to seeking out minors to have sex with, administrators very much prefer
the latter. I’ve shown before that tenure can be denied for faculty that have
even minimal standards, whereas on the other hand even active pedophilia doesn’t preclude someone from administrative
duties.

Alumnus: At my alma mater, a small, private college, there
are 350 faculty members, 67% of whom are contingent labor and 4% of whom are
tenured. There are 2200 students and--wait for it!--1300 administrative
positions. What in the world can ever explain those numbers?

Many point to the bloated ranks of admin as a sign that something
is very wrong in our institutions of learning. I tend to agree, but for now I’ll
point to the literal promotion of
pedophilia as the largest signal that there is something fundamentally wrong in
higher education today. What larger signal could there be?